


Is That Her Name Now?

by heckasketchy



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Implied Root/Shaw i guess, angst I suppose, i dunno just something I whipped up after plotting around with one of my friends, kinda sorta mention of torture but not really??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 02:40:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4547076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckasketchy/pseuds/heckasketchy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Against her better judgement, which just so happens to be the Machine blinking in Her corner, she again asks, 'What is my name?'" <br/>They find her, but reunions are often bittersweet when too much time has passed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Is That Her Name Now?

It’s a shipping container. It has to be. For their own safety and for hers. Both hers. Root eyes the sliver of the briefcase lit by a small hole in the container’s walls. Anything to keep her eyes off the woman strapped to the chair in the center of the space. She becomes entranced with the Machine flashing out words in morse code. Quick and silent, excluding most vowels.

_I told you ‘no’._

She can feel the eyes of Finch and John on her back like bullets. They don’t think she can handle it. She can.

She hopes she can.

“Do you remember me?” Her voice is quiet, much too quiet for any of the three’s liking, but it ricochets off the metal walls like a scream.

“Primary Threat. Number: 001.” Root remembers when the chill of that voice left her shuddering for different reasons.

Against her better judgement, which just so happens to be the Machine blinking in Her corner, she again asks, “What is my name?”

“Primary Threat. Number: 001.”

Before Root can say anything else, John’s gravelly one speaks up from his corner.

“Who am I?”

“Primary Threat. Number: 003.”

A beat of silence. “Root, it’s a lost cause.”

“She.” It’s poison in her mouth, but she has to specify because she is not an it.

“Root.” It’s not John’s hand on her shoulder, but Finch’s. “Please. We’ve risked too much getting her here, situating her this close to us. The risk is far greater than the reward in this case.”

“She’s in there somewhere, Harold. You have to trust me.” Her eyes meet his and though he doesn’t believe her, he nods and steps back. She turns back to the woman who, though small, looks to be taking up the entire container. “You know who I am. I know you do. You have to.”

The only response is cold eyes and a darkened sneer.

“What did they do to you?” Her muscles tense against the wire ties about her wrists and her body quakes with exertion. “You were strong. Stronger than anyone else I’ve ever known. You were one step closer to being the perfect code.” She takes a step closer. “Still, you were broken. How?” Her voice cracks on her last two words and she hates it.

“Take one step closer. I’ll show you how to be broken.” The sneer morphs into a lecherous grin and Root almost falls into it. Any other time, she would have. Hell, she wants to now. But she’s tired, they all are, and if she can have one victory, just one, against Samaritan, maybe they can have hope again.

“As enticing as that sounds, I’m going to have to decline.” The woman’s face falls. It takes Root’s heart with it.

“I know how you work, 001. You flirt, skirting around the problem, going at it like a coward.”

“I do what I have to to survive. You did too. That’s why you let them break you.” The woman’s wrists are rubbed red with the pressure she’s putting into trying to break her restraints.

“Do you know my orders, 001?”

“No.” She does. She doesn’t want to.

“Eliminate Primary Threats 001 through 004.” She says it like she’s been taught to. Root realizes with a stone heart that she has been taught to. Her next words are a breath above a whisper. “I never disobey orders.”

Root has a sudden idea. John and Finch wouldn’t approve and as she looks to the Machine’s corner, she sees that She doesn’t.

Root approaches the woman, looks her dead in the eye as she kneels in front of her right hand. She’s close enough for the woman’s fingers to just barely scrape at the flesh of her neck. And she’s trying to strangle Root, my god, she’s trying.

“Do you remember?” Both women are silent as Root leans into the other woman’s hand. In a mere second, Root’s unable to breathe, and though she wants to fight, she doesn’t. John is at her side in a flash, and he tries to pull her away, but she pushes him off. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the Machine’s blinking away, voracious in her orders.

_Stop. Stop._

She won’t stop. This can help her remember.

“You can end me all you want,” she pushes out and the hand around her neck falters, allowing her half a breath before it tightens, harder this time. Her vision dims, but her eyes never stray from the other woman’s. They’re flickering between her own and she sees a sort of reluctance within them.

“Eliminate Primary Threat 001,” the prisoner whispers. Root can hear that she doesn’t believe it.

“Mr. Reese,” Finch ushers and before he can say anything else, John is tearing Root away. She heaves in a breath and falls to her knees.

“She remembers,” she breathes, “Somewhere in there.” She can’t get enough air. “She remembers.”

“We can’t--”

“We’ll try again.” Root is tired but she cares too much to let her go. “We have to.” She looks to the woman and sees that she’s given up trying to break the wire ties. Her head is slack, chin against her chest, which also heaves. “For her.”

“For her or for you?” Finch is trying and Root doesn’t care.

“How did they break you?” She stands and her knees quake.

“How d’you think?” Her voice has changed. It’s accusing her. Root might know why, and, honestly, she’s not sure whether or not to be happy at the theory or not. “You’re the reason they broke me. The only thing they could think to use. One of the only things I could find myself caring about.”

Root’s entire world collapses in on her. Her chest feels like it’s caving in on her, swallowing her from the inside. She’s the reason. Root is her one flaw.

“Root,” Finch speaks up, not wanting to approach her but knowing he needs to. “We have to go. Our location’s been compromised.”

“We have to take her.”

“We can’t.”

“They’ll just hurt her more.”

“She’s a part of Samaritan now, Root. There’s nothing we can do.” Root comes at him at these words, her eyes wide with pain and anger and the recognition of bone-shattering honesty.

“We abandoned her once, Harold. We can’t do it again.”

“We’ll come back for her once everything’s settled.” _Once the Machine is back online. Once we have a fighting chance._

Root has to trust him, has to believe in his words and promises, even though a part of her still screams at her that he is nothing more than broken code. So she nods as her shoulders fall, and she turns back to the woman they’ve taken as a temporary prisoner. She goes to her slowly, wanting to draw as much from the little time they have together as possible. With a gentle touch from a scarred hand, she tilts her head so she can meet the other’s eyes. She leans in, close but not too much so, and closes her eyes. Root feels her breath on her cheek, like a midnight breeze, and the warmth a searing flame where her fingertips meet her skin.

“I will find you again one day. I will take you back. I’m sorry.” With a slow, calculated movement, she presses the taser to a bit of skin left bare by a tight tanktop. The woman convulses violently before falling still, unconscious. A tear falls onto the woman’s shoulder as Root moves to the corner to pick up the briefcase and call Bear to her side, away from his resting spot behind their prisoner. Finch and John are already gone, yards away from the container and the sudden light from the moon leaves a haunting light on the inside of the container. The scene makes Root shudder when she turns back. She closes her eyes in an attempt to keep tears from falling, though she only succeeds in letting more flow.

“I’m sorry, Sameen,” she breathes into the cool night air as she turns and runs to John and Finch’s sides, away from one of her two reasons to live.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed it! This is my first Person of Interest fic, so criticisms are welcome. Comments, too. Definitely comments.


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